. >> it is a little piece of maryland and virginia. both states gave up some of their territory to create this thing called the district of columbia. it happened because, interestingly enough, during the continental congress some of the great veterans had not been paid. philadelphia has been the capital of the united states -- the veterans marched on philadelphia to demand payment. the congress at the time, they asked the local police to support them. they had no local police, of course. after that, they said, this will never happen again. we will have our own territory. the congress will be there. we will control it. if we have to call for help, we will be able to call for it because it is our territory. so they created this place called the district of columbia. the constitution gives congress full control over the district of columbia. what congress has done, this was done in 1973, was to delegate some of its authority to a locally elected government to manage the affairs of the district, with congress retain oversight authority. up